Finger guard



Aug. 19, 1930. v L. c. LICHTY ET AL 1,773,108

' FINGER GUARD Filed May 1. 1928 Patented Aug. 19, 1930 UNITED STATES LESTER o. LIGHTY AND MICHAEL PERUGINO, on N HA EN, ooNNEo'rIco'r FINGER GUARD Application filed May 1, 1928. Serial No. 274,234.

One object of the invention is to provide a finger guard to prevent the sucking of thumbs and fingers by infants and small children.

Another object of the invention is to provide such a finger guard which is constructed of a single piece of wire.

Another object of the invention is to provide such a finger guard which is formed of a single piece of spirally wound wire.

Another object is to provide a finger guard which is constructed at small cost, durable in construction and easy to market.

Another object is to construct a wire finger guard which is safer than guards of this type heretofore constructed.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a finger guard embodying our improvements showing the same applied to a childs or infants thumb.

Figure 2 is an end elevation of a construction embodying our improvements showing the form upon which it is wound in dotted lines.

Figure 3 is a side elevation of the finger guard shown by Figure 2.

A finger or thumb guard to prevent sucking of fingers or thumbs by small children has heretofore proven very helpful to break this habit of small children. Such a finger guard constructed of wire has cheapened the manufacture of such guards but it has been necessary heretofore to construct each of such uards of more than a single piece of wire.

uards made of a number of pieces of wire are usually so constructed that when any joint becomes broken the end of a wire is loose and the child is apt to endanger an eye or other part of the body. No matter what joint breaks in our device there are no sharp prongs to develop. Also, the breaking of one or a number of joints does not render the article useless.

After a number of experiments extending over aconsiderable pe-riod'of time, we have discovered a method of making-a finger guard constructed of a single piece of wire.

Upon a suitable mandrel (indicated by dotted lines in Figure2) the wire is wound spirally upward beginning at 12 untilthe top of the formis reached, whereupona loop 7 is made over'the top of the mandrel and the downward spiral winding begins. At the bottom a loop 2 is made having sides 6 and 3 and a second upward spiral is begun. The winding continues until thetop is reached and a second top loop 4 is made and the wire is wound spirally downward and isfastened to 3 by bent portion 5.. The other end is similarly fastened at 8 to portion 6. The

winding is preferably done as stated above and follows the arrows in Figure 2. At the beginning of the winding the end 8 may be held by being forced in a hole in the mandrel.

To fasten end 5, portion 3 is raised to allow,

the end of the wire to pass under it, or a slot may be cut in the mandrel-to allow the wire to pass under 3. The wire is then turned over 3 to form fastening 5. J j

In another manner. of practicing our meth- 0d, we first take a single strand of wire and make a loop 2. Upon a suitably shaped mandrel or form one end of this loop is wound spirally beginning at 3 until the top of the form is reached. Around thetop ofthe form a second loop 4 is formed and the wire is now wound spirally downward until the wire comes in'contact with thepart 3 whereupon it is made fast to this portion by turning the wire arounds'aid portion as indicated at 5. The other side of the loop 2 designatedb is now wound, spirally upward onv the form until the top portion of the sameisreached,

whereupon a third looped portion/7. is made i and the wireis now. wound. spirally down- I ward and attached to the said portion 6 at 8.

In making the second upward spiral starting from portion "'6 the wire is preferably upper portion of I crossed alternately under and over the upward and downward spirals formed during the first winding operation, although we wish to be expressly understood as not lim- 5 iting ourselves to such a construction.

In making our finger guard we may construct the same by hand operations or may employ a machine to perform the winding operations includin formin the loops, spirals and fastening 51o ends such fastenings being indicated at 5 and 8). However we may use a machine to perform one or more of the e g ertorrsi th se not 111 by ma hi'h, hand laboi'l As still another met d of construeting our be taneously beginning at the side portions 3 and 6 of the loop 2, winding the spirals upwardly at the same time, constructing the loops simultmieously and then downward ll y and finally connectin the ends and 8. A is method may be empfi: with especial advantage when the gun is construcmd bgfla' machine. The machine may t final operation of turning the b 8 or this operation could be made in onethcr method of constructing our gtlsi'dfthe upward iral on one side is first Hilde while the onward spiral is bein 0 second upward spiral is made, IQW- he second downward spiral.

inst another method the downward spirels arecmede first either in succession or simultaneously followed by the upward s ng-ale, either in succession or simultaneout e prefer, he ever, to use the method firstset forth in t is specification, although we d not wish to limited to such method.

A (if-having formed the guard the preferable} portions of the wire which cross each other and portions 5 and 8 are brazed, welded orefe ldered together as indicated at 9 and 10 oft e joints m Eve-soldered by dipping the ard and mandrel in molten solder after guard is removed from the man? In order to y t removal of the and by its wearer a ieoe of tape or strin 1 may be attached to t e loop 2 and fastened around the ii urali spire ormgd soil;

e e i 1 o id i als P1 d um yt ine "A erdtq e t h 1 19.911 y ofe. i. i evmsap urahty o h t me e we .eigihs time certa n, of said reent r,

the operatiflns form d" eduubied at the LESTER C. LICHTY. MICHAEL PERUGINO. 

